The present disclosure relates generally to memory management of virtual operating systems, and more particularly to ballooning with assigned devices.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option is a computing system. Computing systems may vary in complexity from a single processor operating in relative isolation to large networks of interconnected processors. The interconnected processors may be in close proximity to each other or separated by great distances both physically and as distance is measured in computer networking terms. The interconnected processors may also work together in a closely cooperative fashion or in a loose weakly coupled fashion. Because technology and processing needs and requirements may vary between different applications, the structure and arrangement of the computing system may vary significantly between two different computing systems. The flexibility in computing systems allows them to be configured for both specific users, specific uses, or for more general purposes. Computing system may also include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information based on the needs of the users and the applications.
Additionally, some examples of computing systems include non-transient, tangible machine-readable media that include executable code that when run by one or more processors, may cause the one or more processors to perform the steps of methods described herein. Some common forms of machine readable media include, for example, floppy disk, flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, any other magnetic medium, CD-ROM, any other optical medium, punch cards, paper tape, any other physical medium with patterns of holes, RAM, PROM, EPROM, FLASH-EPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, and/or any other medium from which a processor or computer is adapted to read.
As computing systems become ever more distributed over the Internet and the “cloud,” the boundary between one computer or machine in the computing system and another computer or machine becomes less distinct. In some instances, a single physical computer may play host to more than one computer or machine using virtualization. This provides great flexibility in the computing system as it is not always necessary to arrange systems in terms of a single application being hosted by a single physical server. In virtualization, a system may host multiple virtual machines on the same server. Each of the virtual machines may appear to the rest of the computing system as separate computers or machines, but they may actually be one of many virtual machines being emulated by the same server. This may allow the same server to provide virtual machines running different operating systems and applications as well as to provide different services to different users. As typically configured, each of the physical servers in a virtual environment runs a host operating system that manages the server's hardware and coordinates the use of various computing resources on the server, such as memory, for each of the virtual machines, which are running a virtual or guest operating system. As each of the virtual machines become more complex, management of the computing resources may become more complex as well.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide improved systems and methods for managing memory in a virtual environment.